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Hangsim
is Wilco’s first standalone title, and--as they are so proud to
announce--the first light aviation sim on the market. What is light
aviation? Well, it includes all forms of aerial transportation that are
not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration here in the States.
Aircraft that do not meet the FAA’s minimum requirements for weight or
horsepower and therefore do not need to be regulated by the government
agency for airworthiness are considered light aircraft. The way I’ve
always looked at it is that people that fly this stuff simply, and
understandably, can’t afford “real” airplanes, or they’re just
mad.
I
briefly mentioned micro-meteorology above and should go into more detail
with it since it is central to the enterprise of gliding. Reportedly,
Hangsim’s game engine takes into account the paths of air masses when
affected be the sun’s heat, geography, and meteorological factors. For
instance, darker patches of earth absorb more of the Suns’s rays,
creating thermals, or areas of rising warm air. A glider pilot attempts to
stay on top of or pass through as many thermals as possible to lengthen
the flight. Occasionally the game would act as if it were considering
phenomena such as these but did so sporadically and without consideration
to where I was flying at the time.
On
top of the aforementioned problems, this game has, hands down, the most
obnoxious in-game music I have ever encountered, it’s as if Brian Eno
and John Tesh got together and noodled out a New Age masterpiece using a
Casio keyboard that they dug up at the Goodwill. It almost drove me mad,
and I compensated by unloading as many missiles as possible into helpless
paragliders. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the missiles, which are
available to you through the Fun Flight option, and are the real highlight
of the game. Wilco’s
previous projects include the Grand Canyon and Airport 2000 add-ons for
Microsoft Flight Simulator; both turned out all right, but suffered from
some of the same problems I saw in Hangsim, though not to this degree. I
don’t know if I’d recommend this game to anyone unless they really
wanted to fly the microlite, but the other stuff can be pretty much
ignored. Lets hope this is not a trend for Wilco, and they get back to
making decent add-ons for MFS. |
I
often feel that there are some things that game developers should just
steer clear of trying to replicate in the game world. Not that these
things are necessarily stupid or even unworthy, but because in the process
of recreating them on computer more often than not the entire point of
these activities is negated. For example, bull riding might be fun and
challenging and all, but in a bull riding simulation the player can
genuinely do nothing but frantically jab some keys or manhandle the
joystick and pretend that they are in some semblance of control. Grasping
the physics of bull riding enough to reproduce them on computer is like
explaining string theory in a game of Taboo; it ain’t gonna happen.
That’s where I feel Hangsim belongs, teetering on the edge of flight sim
and slowly slipping into utter pointlessness-the longer you play it, the
worse it gets. Not that it’s the worst game I’ve ever played, its just
some of the worst subject matter I’ve seen in a game for a while.
Hangsim
offers seven light aircraft comprised of three hang gliders, two
paragliders, a microlite, and a sailplane. The latter has been featured in
other flight sims with some success like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000's
Schweizer 2-32 glider. In comparison to Hangsim’s Hawk, the FS2K’s
glider was a much more rewarding experience and seemed to follow a more
well thought out flight model. As far as the hang gliders go, the
computer, without the aid of autopilot, consistently scored longer flights
than if I was at the controls. I’m not sure if that was because of my
inexperience at simulated hang gliding and general unfamiliarity with
micro-meteorology, or if my joystick has a natural ability yet unexplored
when left alone at this game. The paragliders need little mention other
than it’s parachuting with a little motor strapped to your back and
you’ll be lucky if you maintain any altitude or get moving faster than
you could normally walk. The only redeeming aircraft is the microlite--more
familiarly known as an ultralight--which putts around at speeds of 35 mph
or so and flies more or less as it should.
Wilco
boasts that this game offers “real-world 3D mountains, forests, cities,
valleys, and seas depicted in 16-bit color and 3 meters/pixel resolution
for a bird’s-eye view unmatched in clarity and detail by any other
flight sim.” Now hold on a minute; the terrain is obviously taken from
photos, but they're pretty motley ones. 3D objects are sparse, and don’t
hold up to close examination. There are at least a couple of flight sims
that are much more successful at squeezing out the details. At least this
game maintains a respectable amount of variation in where to fly; if it
weren’t for that I would have uninstalled it a lot sooner.